Team Blake
They’re fighting for their lives.
Who isn’t?
We are Blake’s 7 at last! Having seven lead characters in
each episode won’t always work. As previous episodes have already been doing,
it is easier to split them up and take it in turns to go down to the planet
each week. I’ll say one thing for Blake, as a leader he isn’t shy about getting
his hands dirty as in The Web he heads down to this week's planet alone.
One great aspect of the series so far is that there is no
gradual meandering towards the plot – we’re straight into it within the opening
10 minutes of each episode. Following the introductory ones, this is only the
second 'proper' episode so I will be interested to see if that continues. Also,
I think Terry Nation is the only writer on this first series, so I'm wondering
if other writers would take a different approach.
At the start of The
Web Cally has been sabotaging The Liberator. Endangering their lives is not
the best way to start life with some new friends. Avon is conducting
experiments on part of the ship and as she asks technical questions, they
exchange a glance that makes me think there could be some spark between them,
which I’m willing to dismiss as soon as we discover she was possessed. It’s for
the best; I don’t think I’m ready for Avon the Romantic. New Romantic, yes – he’d
comfortably rock the outfits and eyeliner - but we’re a few years too early for
that anyway.
Cally hasn’t exactly been subtle so the crew quickly figure
out who is responsible and that there is a bomb on board. Blake nearly blows
himself up but Avon dives and knocks him out the way of the explosion. The
first thing Blake says is, “Why?” Avon looks as stunned as him and claims it
was an automatic reaction. The rest of the crew would have been surprised as
well because let’s face it – Avon hasn’t made any effort whatsoever to hide his
antagonism towards Blake. Only a few scenes before he’d said, “Blake won’t
always be making the decisions,” before flashing a wonderful wicked grin. I'm
not sure whether Avon is actively scheming or is just planning to bide his
time.
The Liberator ends up in a web of material in space, unable
to get out. Something begins to speak through Jenna and tells them to land on a
nearby planet to provide "assistance". I thought the lip syncing with
Jenna was pretty well done and the voice was bloody creepy.
If it’s the sort of thing you like, it should be noted that
we start this episode with Gareth Thomas flashing his torso. Blake covers up
his bare torso with a knitted green shirt. Within a few scenes he appears to
have added a waistcoat-type thing with short leather sleeves. Finally, when he
heads down to the planet he’s put a coat on.
Blake lands on a planet in the middle of a forest. As he
works his way through there are several large white balloons that immediately
made me think of Rover from The Prisoner,
although the Blake's 7 ones are
slightly smaller. I feel like Blake the escapee and rebel would get on well
with Number Six.
The planet is home to little creatures who speak in a high-pitched
tone. Their skin is greenish, partly smooth, with parts looking like leaves. They
sound like child actors when they are making noises and I wonder whether in the
costumes they are, but they must be dubbed when they speak as they then sound
different. As Blake heads for a building, one approaches him, saying,
"Help us" but before he has chance a man in silver steps out of the
building and shocks it. Blake looks stunned as he's ushered inside.
He's introduced to a woman in silver as well and we learn
that the creatures are called Decimas, have been genetically engineered and
become increasingly aggressive. The latest generation especially has gone a
bit rogue. These two, Novara and Geela, show no emotion about the experiments
they are doing and so it is little surprise to discover that they too were
genetically engineered.
Novara and Geela are decked out in silver jumpsuits made of what
looks like tin foil, wrapped in what I’m absolutely certain is cling film. I remain
undecided whether their wellies were nicked from redundant Cybermen. Combined
with coiffed silver hair and a shit-ton of eye makeup, the pair of them look
like they’ve stepped fresh out of a 1980s’ music video. As this went out in
1978, I suppose that just about makes it futuristic.
They need some power in the form of cylinder-shaped battery
things and Blake gets in touch with The Liberator to ask Avon to bring some.
However, he's clearly hesitant when he discovers they are going to use the
power to destroy the Decimas. While Novara and Geela claim the Decimas are
unintelligent life, the episode makes it plain that this isn't true. Hearing
noise from outside, Blake looks out a window to see a crowd gathered around the
Decima that Novara put down earlier. One of the Decimas is crying.
The Web is an interesting portrayal of the risks of
attempting to genetically-engineer life. The Decimas continue to be regarded as
primitive creatures, despite the fact that Novara and Geela describe them as having
had several generations. They have developed beyond what was intended for the
experiments and are now able to organise themselves enough to attack Novara and
Geela's base, where they keep some of the Decimas contained for experiments.
It is a nice twist that Novara and Geela themselves are also
experiments. They have no emotional range and speak very factually and
logically about what they are doing. It must have seemed the ideal way to breed
a couple of scientists. But it proves to be their undoing. The scientists' belief
that unintelligent or primitive life would have no emotions means they cannot
understand the bleeding obvious - the Decimas are angry and upset because their
species is being tortured and killed.
It is ironic that the Decimas' behaviour is dismissed as
aggression as this is what Novara turns to when Blake and Avon attempt to
avoid handing over the power packs. He
uses a stick to shock Avon’s hand, telling them, “Understand your lives are
totally unimportant to us.” The scientists' lack of emotional capacity and
therefore lack of any empathy or compassion for others means that they fail to
see the advantages of having Blake and Avon's support against the Decimas. All
their threats, to both the Decimas and The Liberator's crew, are physical and
therefore I suppose the only emotion they do understand is the most primitive
one of all - fear.
At the episode's climax, the Decimas manage to get into the
base. The creatures go utterly mental during this attack and the screeching -
oh my god the screeching - is horrendous. It goes on forever. They smash the
place apart, including a bobbing head on a body in red liquid that was Novara
and Geela's controller. The attack does turn rather grim. Novara and Geela
become mere shrunken bodies and skulls. The Decimas wade in and start kicking
one of the heads around like a football.
It's Avon's only encounter with the Decimas and he gestures
to them as they wreak havoc, saying, "These are what you wanted it to
protect?" Blake snaps back, "They’re fighting for their lives."
"Who isn’t?" responds Avon. It's the first time I think I've been on
Blake's side instead of Avon's. With Blake we've seen what the Decimas have
been through and Avon's remarks seem callous.
While I've been fairly unimpressed with the fashion choices
of the Blake's7 universe up to now, I
love the Liberator raincoats worn by Blake and Avon in this episode. Blake’s
consists of a couple of shades of green, while Avon’s is the same in blue and
both have white ‘V’ shaped piping on the front and back (It’s nice to know Avon
can wear something that isn’t a shade of grey). The coats seem practical and
while it’s entirely subjective, I think they look fantastic and are possibly
the best fashion choices in the show. I also like the idea that The Liberator
has a store of uniform outfits.
An added bonus to the raincoats was that they caused me to cry out, “BLAKE HAS A
UTILITY BELT!” and later, “AVON HAS ONE TOO!” Blake’s probably contains
revolutionary bombs and reviving salts while Avon’s pocket has a box of poison
with ‘Blake’s medicine’ written on it.
I enjoyed the plot of The
Web and thought it was an interesting idea to explore. I was worried Blake's 7 could end up a tad too science-fiction-y
for me and I would get bored in jargon, but that's certainly not been the case
so far. It is also good to see that the programme's episodes don't always need to centre around being chased by and/or trying to attack the Federation.
Although I've spent the last few episodes wanting to see
more from other characters, I thought The
Web was a great one to have Blake on his own. With several people there we
would have had plenty of moral discussion about how wrong the scientists are,
when it actually works much better mostly left unsaid. Prior to Blake heading
down to the planet, we do spend a good chunk of the episode on The Liberator. I
worry I may get impatient with wanting them to get on with the story and get
out onto this week's location. Yet as stated above, so far the series has been
fantastic at just getting on with the story.
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